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Transformation Garden is a worldwide Christian ministry dedicated to encouraging and empowering women in their daily walk with Jesus. The devotional thoughts presented in Transformation Garden have their foundation in the Bible – the inspired word of God.

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Transformation Garden - Mar. 25, 2012

Today’s Text of Encouragement:“Blessed is the man (woman) that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he (she) shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when the heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
Jeremiah 17: 7, 8
King James Version

Today’s Study Text:“The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still.”
Exodus 14: 14
Good News Bible

How easy do I think it would be to “hold my peace,” if I were being followed by Pharaoh and was up against the power of the Red Sea?

What event in my life right now is making me afraid?

How should I “hold my peace” during this time of trial?

“Always long and pray that the will of God may be fully realized in your life. You will find that the man (or woman) who does this walks in the land of peace and quietness.”
Thomas á Kempis

INSPIRATION:

“A great many people are trying to make peace, but that has already been done. God has not left it for us to do, all we have to do is to enter into it.”
D. L. Moody

The English linguist and hymn-writer Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), best known for her famous words to the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be,” also penned the words to another hymn that I love, which reflects on the peace we can find in our heavenly Father’s presence. I’d like to share a few of her words with you:

“Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest,
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”

As I read these words, I thought back to a prayer by Elizabeth of the Trinity, written hundreds of years ago, “O my God…whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in You still and peaceful…let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from You, O my unchanging God.”

I find it very interesting that the trial faced by the Israelites in the desert, wedged between Pharaoh’s army and the vast Red Sea, ends on a note of peace! God’s message to His dear frightened children was: “Peace, be still.” And we find that Jesus conveyed the same message when on a stormy sea with His disciples.

As we have studied God’s formula for deliverance in our lives from the discouragement which can accompany unanswered prayers or request from delayed needs – whatever your longing may be, God’s plan for solving our problems is very direct! “Don’t be fearful or afraid. Stand still and see the Lord’s salvation. I will fight for you, and you can hold your peace!

To get a better understanding of the phrase, “hold your peace,” I went to the Hebrew translation and here’s what I found. Both the words “hold” and “peace” come from the same root for the complete phrase, “hold your peace.” This phrase means, “to keep your silence, to hold your tongue.” But there are also two other words associated with the Hebrew and they are “scratch” and “plough” – both words I link with farming. I want to expand on these words by sharing a thought from Theodore Cyler: “I have seen a farmer drive his plow-share through the velvet greensward, and it looked like a harsh and cruel process; but the farmer’s eye foresaw the springing blades of wheat and knew that within a few months, that torn soil, would laugh with a golden harvest.”

Holding our tongue during the bitter is also a meaning of the phrase to “hold your peace.” As God’s children faced the bitter reality of being entrapped on the banks of the Red Sea, God told Moses, “Tell them to keep their peace for victory is on its way – right now!”

The poet Frederick L. Hosmer put it so beautifully when he penned these words:

“Patient, O heart, though heavy by thy sorrows!
Be not cast down, disquieted in vain.
Yet shalt thou praise Him when these darkened furrows,
Where now He plougheth, wave with golden grain.”

I don’t know what Red Sea or Pharaoh has you boxed in right now. But when we follow our Father’s will, He will make a path through the sea, and take us across on dry land. In the words of Pastor C. A. Fox:

“Confronted by a thousand waves
And woes innumerable – Jesus saves!
A whole Red Sea His fiat cleft in twain,
And saints with Him still tread the untrodden main,
Though flesh and heart both fail,
Yet onward, true, ‘Rock of my heart,’
O God, thou wilt bear me through!”

On Monday, we will be taking a look at one of God’s most wonderful promises, found in the book of Isaiah, as we conclude, next week, our study on delayed and unanswered prayer. Why not invite a friend to come to the Garden next week.

“Be still, O trembling heart of mine,
And be thou blest;
There is a place of love divine,
Where thou canst lay that head of thine –
Upon His breast:
Why shouldest thou still thy burdens bear?
He lives thy sorrows all to share;
Then cast on Him thine every care,
And be at rest.”

Dr. R. E. Neighbour

AFFIRMATION:

“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.”
Exodus 14: 21, 22
K.J.V.

All Through The Night

“All through the night,
Dear Father, when our trembling eyes explore
In vain Thy heavens, bereft of warmth and light,
When birds are mute, and roses glow no more,
And this fair world sinks rayless from our sight,
O Father, keep us then!

“All through the night,
When no lips smile, nor dear eyes answer ours,
Nor well-known voices through the shadows come;
When love and friends seem dreams of vanished hours,
And darkness holds us pitiless and dumb,
O Father, keep us then!

“All through the night,
When lone despairs beset our happy hearts,
And dear forebodings will not let us sleep;
When every smothered sorrow freshly starts
And pleads for pity till we fain would weep,
O Father, keep us then!

“All through the night,
When slumbers deep our weary senses fold,
Protect us in the hollow of Thy hand;
And when the morn, with glances bright and bold,
Thrills the glad heavens and wakes the smiling land,
O Father, keep us then!”

P.S. Just to let you know, Transformation Garden is now on FACEBOOK. Please come and see us and share the garden with your friends. The Daily Devotional is posted everyday, Monday through Friday on Facebook, too.

My book, When A Woman Meets Jesus, is available wherever books are sold and on the internet at www.amazon.com, and www.Christianbook.com, or by calling toll-free, 1-800-Christian. You may also call Transformation Garden at 480-281-1508.

About Transformation Garden

Transformation Garden is a worldwide Christian ministry dedicated to encouraging and empowering women in their daily walk with Jesus. The devotional thoughts presented in Transformation Garden have their foundation in the Bible – the inspired word of God.